Alcohols are important starting materials in aliphatic chemistry because of the versatility of their reactions. The two principal sources of obtaining simple alcohols are the hydration of alkenes obtained from the cracking of petroleum and the fermentation of carbohydrates.
Acetone, an important solvent is generally prepared by the dehydrogenation of the corresponding alcohol, although other synthetic methods may sometimes be utilized.
The petrochemical industry, in certain areas of the world, exemplary of which is Alberta, Canada, relies on the occurrence of ethane in natural gas as its main source of ethylene. Typically, natural gas would have a two to four percent ethane content. During recent years, it has been observed that the ethane content of produced natural gas has been less.
However, methane, thermodynamically the most stable hydrocarbon, occurs in abundance in natural gas. It would be most desirable to effect conversion of methane to the C.sub.3 oxygenates described supra directly using a simple inexpensive method with high conversion rates.
Such a conversion is highly endothermic, requiring high reaction temperatures to convert or react the methane with a hydrating agent such as water. Additionally, at these high temperatures the water would be in the gaseous form and the HOH bond would be difficult to break. Additionally, oxygen would be required and it is deleteriously corrosive or explosive or the like.
During earlier work described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,038, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference, it was discovered that methane could be selectively converted to ethylene and hydrogen using a microwave-induced catalytic hydrocracking process. The process relied on the use of a catalyst adapted both to provide catalytic sites for the hydrocracking reaction and to absorb microwave radiation. The favoured catalyst comprised a 1 micron particle sized mixture of 15% Fe and 85% Ni. Energy in the form of pulsed microwave radiation was supplied to the reaction zone. The duration of the application of energy was controlled to attain selectivity of the conversion.